Taking a step towards greater control, China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) introduced the Hong Kong National Security Law and incorporated it into the third part of Annex III of the Basic Law of Hong Kong on June 30, 2020. This was done without involving the Hong Kong Legislative Council, and the effects of the law are being felt to this day.
The legislation granted mainland security agencies jurisdiction over certain cases within Hong Kong and gave Hong Kong’s Chief Executive the power to appoint judges for national security trials – changes that were deemed by some critics as well as Western governments to be a breach of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. A research briefing issued by the UK House of Commons Library stated that the law was enacted by circumventing Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.
According to the briefing, Beijing claimed that the central government is responsible for matters related to national security and that Hong Kong had been left “defenceless” in the face of the “grave” security situation due to its inability to create legislation. Legal experts, however, pointed out that Article 23 of the Basic Law states that Hong Kong “shall enact laws on its own” for the purpose of national security, and thus prohibits Beijing from passing such legislation.
The US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) noted that 27 countries expressed official concerns regarding the impact of the law on the degree of autonomy afforded Hong Kong as defined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.
New Structures, Reduced Guarantees
A UK Home Office policy note on Hong Kong in April 2025 noted that the law established the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong and granted it jurisdiction over national security cases. In addition, it stated that the possibility of the Secretary for Justice ordering non-jury trials as well as closed trials for certain cases, allowing the central government to exercise jurisdiction over them.
The Council on Foreign Relations pointed out that the legislation provides Beijing an opportunity to form a security force in Hong Kong, as well as exert influence on the choice of judges hearing national security cases. Pro-democracy legislators and activists called it a “death knell for the Hong Kong that they knew”.
Promise Of Autonomy Broken
Under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, China committed to providing Hong Kong the right to maintain its executive, legislative and independent judicial powers for 50 years after the handover in 1997 – a system known as “one country, two systems.” In addition, it stated that no department of the central government and no Chinese province or municipality shall intervene in the internal affairs of Hong Kong.
Observers pointed out that China started accelerating the erosion of civil liberties and the rights of the people in Hong Kong after Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012, and that passing the National Security Law in 2020 can be seen as the most direct assertion of central authority over Hong Kong since the handover.
Made-In-Hong Kong Law
On March 19, 2024, the Hong Kong Legislative Council unanimously passed the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, thereby complying with the constitutional obligation set forth by Article 23 of the Basic Law, which remained untouched for more than two decades. The Ordinance entered into force on March 23, 2024, and expanded the scope of national security offences to include treason, insurrection, sabotage, espionage and the theft of state secrets, according to the UK Home Office.
